In the global passport ranking, which measures how many countries one can visit without obtaining a visa in advance, Korea again took second place out of 199 countries in the world this year. Canada is 8th.
‘Henley & Partners’, an international exchange advisory firm based in London, UK, released the result of evaluating each country’s ‘passport power’ based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on the 10th.
It ranks the number of countries that do not require a visa when holding a passport or that can be visited through a relatively simple entry procedure.
Japan (193 countries) ranked highest in the report released on the day.
Korea (192 countries) and Singapore (192 countries) tied for second place. Canada (185 countries) tied for eighth with Australia and Greece.
The Korean passport was once ranked 13th in 2013, but since 2018, it has consistently maintained the top spot, going back and forth between 2nd and 3rd in the world.
Following Japan, Korea and Singapore, Germany and Spain tied for third place with 190 countries.
This was closely followed by Luxembourg, Finland, and Italy (189 countries) then Sweden, Denmark, Austria, and the Netherlands (188 countries).
The U.S. passport is ranked seventh in the world as it allows you to visit 186 countries without a prior visa. Russia ranked 48th with 118 countries, and China ranked 66th with 80 countries.